Disclaimer. As usual I don’t own Harry Potter, or any of the characters, things, or animals, that are mentioned in the Harry Potter books, I do how ever own the plot in this little venture into the Potter verse.

A/note, well sorry about the delay, I’ve been in the hospital for a while.
This chapter is just a filler to cover the period between Christmas and Harry’s birthday, there is not a great deal that happened in that time but I still needed to write it to bring Helens new baby into the tale. Hope you enjoy it and I hope you don’t all come screaming for my blood if you think it seems to go to quick.

Hermione Granger, heaven sent.

Chapter 5

Albus Dumbledore climbed the stair from the cellar twenty minutes before three, he was feeling just a little tired and slightly confused for reasons he could not work out he had felt a sort of echo each time he had used his magic. He had been setting up wards for many years now and he had never once in all that time noticed a secondary surge in the magic surrounding him.

Almost as soon as he entered the kitchen Hermione informed him they were about to leave to visit number four Privet Drive, asking if he could accompany them he offered to make them a portkey so that they could all travel together.

The scene at number four Privet Drive was like some thing from a comedy movie, several small men were carrying furniture out of the house while Vernon and Petunia were trying to take furniture in to the house.
Quite a few of the neighbours were standing around watching, while a few more were listening to a young woman who was asking Dudley questions.

Dudley was having an in depth discussion with the young woman, well as in depth as can be achieved by some one who was as thick as Dudley, and he was enjoying every moment of his boasting about how they had all treated his cousin Harry, Hermione overheard the last of his remarks, while noticing the woman taking notes.

“And so Dudley when was the last time you saw your cousin Harry?” the woman asked.

“Well last time I saw him was around tea time the day when dad gave him a hiding and threw him across the floor for not cooking me enough bacon, dad dragged him to his cupboard and I haven’t seen him since.” Dudley replied to the young woman, it was obvious he had enjoyed watching his cousin being beaten.

“Really, what cupboard was that?”

“Oh just the little one under the stairs, that’s where the freak sleeps, mum told him it was his bedroom when he first arrived, dad says we should buy a kennel and put the little freak out in the back garden, but if they did that he wouldn’t be able to do the cooking, still I’ll miss him, I have to wander around the neighbourhood now looking for some one else to beat up.” Dudley told her puffing out his chest.

Several of the neighbours gasped as the truth about the small boy they had all shunned and treated so badly came out of Dudley’s mouth, there were several women in the crowd who at that moment felt sick to their stomachs, as they realised that they had added to the cruelty toward an innocent young child.

It was just then that the young woman spotted Hermione, leaving Dudley she made her way across the lawn to Hermione.

“Hello, I’m Janet Frobisher, I wonder do you know the young boy who lived here?” she asked.

“Hello I’m Hermione, and if you are asking about Harry, I’m his girlfriend,” Hermione replied.

“So Hermione tell me, how do they treat Harry here?”

“You just heard a rather good description of Harry’s day to day life with his aunt and uncle from Dudley, I don’t think anything I say will be any different, though I will tell you that the day Dudley was talking about, Harry was pretty severely beaten, he had a perforated eardrum, broken arm and ribs and several previous breaks that need to be reset.” Hermione replied as Harry came around from the back of the house.

Reaching Hermione the first thing Harry did was to take hold of her hand and give her a nervous look, Hermione gave his hand a gentle squeeze.
When Albus joined them the young woman seemed to become some what confused and wandered away from them, pulling out of her pocket a small two way radio she called for police assistance to arrest two on charges of child cruelty.

Five minutes later all the Dursleys belongings were piled out in the road way out side number four, three small men were busy changing the locks.
Uncle Vernon noticed Harry and with a bellow he rushed at the small boy his fist raised yelling that it was all his fault.
Thankfully Vernon never managed to reach Harry as Richard stepped forward and hit Vernon with a brilliant right hook knocking the fat man down, Richards second hit when Vernon rose and came back for more, removed four of Vernon’s front teeth and broke his nose, Vernon hit the floor unconscious, meanwhile Petunia had ill advisedly taken a swing with her hand bag at Harry.

Helen Granger had taken a leaf from her husbands book and hit Petunia with a right upper cut followed by a left hook that definitely knocked a few teeth out, Hermione was about as angry as she had ever been and was about to turn Vernon into a rather fat pig, luckily for the uncle two police men turned up in time to save Vernon from Hermione’s wrath.
Both Vernon and Petunia were placed in to a waiting police car and driven away, Dudley was placed into the back seat of Janet Frobisher’s car and he too was driven away.

Harry may have been a little young to want revenge on his relatives but as he watched Mr Granger thump his huge uncle he felt a small sense of pleasure at knowing that there was at last some one to protect him from the beatings he had become so used to. He watched as Mrs Granger laid his aunt out on the lawn and he understood what Hermione had meant when she told him it was wrong to hit a child like him, it was wrong to lock him in a cupboard and to starve him of any affection. Harry now knew that he would never again be without some one who loved him.
The warm glow he felt towards the Grangers he knew now that it was love, he remembered Hermione’s words when she said that love was some thing we need to feel in order to know what it was, well now he knew.

There was just the one thing that had him a little confused, his feelings for Hermione were different, warmer some how, more intense, more something else, something he could not yet describe, but he also knew that she felt the same way about him and that made him even happier than watching uncle Vernon have his nose broken.

One of the small men approached Mr Granger and informed them that Mr Griphook had requested Harry’s presence in the house.
Several form signings later Harry was handed the keys to number four and Mr Griphook vanished leaving the Grangers and Dumbledore standing with Harry in the empty living room.

Harry stood looking at the keys in his hand wondering what he was supposed to do with a house, he definitely did not wish to live there and he knew he was to young to actually live there alone anyway. Shrugging his shoulders he handed the keys to Mr Granger.

Richard looked down at the keys Harry had just given him and like Harry he too wondered what he was supposed to do with them.

Albus Dumbledore stood and watched all that had happened, he too had over heard Dudley’s boast about Harry’s treatment while with the Dursleys, a few small tears ran down into his beard as he finally realised just how bad his judgement had been, how close he had come to creating yet another Voldemort. If it were not for Harry’s amazing resilience and eventual rescue he may well have grown up to be the next Tom Riddle, unloved and mistreated, living forever filled with anger and hate. Albus knew he owed a great debt of gratitude to the fiery little witch named Hermione Jane Granger, and he agreed with Minerva’s assessment, Hermione was going to be the greatest witch of the millennium, the one who would take up the reigns of Rowena Ravenclaw. From now onward he vowed he would do all he could to help her in what ever way he could.

One of the neighbour’s in the crowd must have called the local council because even though it was Christmas day a wagon turned up and a team of men began to clear the road, the Dursleys property was thrown into the back of the wagon and crushed.

Back at the Granger house just two hours later, Dumbledore thanked the Grangers for taking Harry from the life he himself had unwittingly placed the boy in, he then asked Harry to find it in his heart to one day forgive an old man his mistakes, that done Albus tried to dissaparate and failed.

Hermione grinned and offered to walk the head master to the gate; she knew that as soon as he left the property he would never be able to find them again unless he was invited, and she could not see that happening, this time around she was not as naive, and did not have her previous trust in authority figures.

As they ate supper Richard Granger mixed them all some eggnog and for the first time he had no qualms about allowing his daughter to have a small glass. As Harry crawled into Hermione’s bed some time in the middle of the night she smiled when she heard him whisper,

“I know what love is now Hermione, and I love you.”

Hermione pulled him close and fell asleep with Harry wrapped tightly in her arms, she slept better that night than she had ever slept before.
Her sleep was filled with beautiful dreams of heaven and Harry and love.

Helen Granger lay in bed and gently rubbed the small lump that was now growing in her stomach and she thought of that first day when she took Harry shopping.

They had between them selected several vests and underpants for him but she had not been sure about his size, one of the shop assistants offered to help and led them to a small changing area, both she and the assistant had gasped when Harry pulled off his way to big ragged shirt and revealed the scars on his back, Helen stared as the appalled shop assistant asked him how he had got them.

“Oh that was last week, its okay though because now I have someone who will look after me and love me,” he answered innocently before he turned to Helen and smiled “Hermione’s mum and dad are great.”

Helen could not help the tear that she shed when the small beaten boy turned and quite happily told the shop assistant that he wished they would be his new mum and dad.

Shop assistant and customer sat on the chairs provided in the small changing room and both of them cried for the little boy who so obviously wanted some one to love him, for some reason when Harry said he wished she would be his new mum, Helen remembered how she had felt the first time she had held Hermione, and the first time she had brought her home from the hospital, as Harry took hold of her hand and looked up at her as though amazed that she had not yelled or hit him for holding her hand, she knew she wanted another child. She also knew that from that moment that Harry was going to be the son they never had.

She rubbed her stomach once more before turning onto her side and whispered “Thank you Harry.”

Richard lay awake and wondered what his wife was thinking about, he noticed the small tear that slipped down her cheek as she rubbed her new lump, he too was amazingly happy about the pregnancy and he smiled as he saw the small smile on Helen’s face as she turned on to her side and when he heard her whisper he added “Thanks from me too Harry.”

Hermione woke early the next morning and as she lay in the bed, with Harry spooning her she wondered why on earth she had ever chosen Ron Weasley instead of Harry, she remembered he had been her first real friend, even though they were supposed to be friends after the troll incident Ron had not truly accepted her, he spent most of the time they were together picking fault with her, called her mental and very often made her cry, he reminded her of the bullies at her primary school and now as she remembered the things she had seen in heaven she realised how while Ron was making her cry, Harry was showing his love for her, he showed it in so many ways she now wondered how she could have possibly missed it.

Holding Harry’s hand that draped across her stomach she made him a silent promise, she would never again break his heart or destroy his future, she would love for all she was worth for all time, this time she would not bury her feelings for him, this time she would celebrate those feelings, she would make him happy. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze and lifted it slowly so that she could kiss his palm before she rested his hand on her cheek.

With Christmas and the New Year over Richard suggested that they all take a trip to Diagon Alley where they could buy Harry a wand, and hopefully spend the day getting to know a little about this new world they had all found them selves a part of.

As Mr Ollivander introduced him self to Harry, Hermione suggested that Harry would be a phoenix, it was with some surprise when fifteen minutes later Mr Ollivander gave Harry a wand with a Phoenix feather core to try and the results were a shower of red and gold stars that filled the front of the shop, a very happy smiling Harry left Ollivander’s shop hand in hand with Hermione, closely followed by Richard and Helen.

After a walk around the Alley looking into shop windows both Hermione and Harry asked to visit the book shop, Hermione found she was rather pleased to find that taken away from the influence of the Dursleys, Harry actually liked to read and learn, when she had asked him about his previous primary school and his grades Harry admitted he had been terrified of getting better grades than Dudley because it just meant another beating or at the very least a few days without food.

Having both bought two books each Richard took the family across the road to the ice cream parlour, they sat and enjoyed a rather strange magically warm Ice cream, Richard spent several minutes trying to work out how it could be done, the ice cream was warm and yet it was still ice cream.
Lunch time they found a nice little restaurant that was run by a rather odd looking old man and his daughters.

Almost as soon as they arrived home Hermione and Harry made their way down to the cellar that had been shielded by Dumbledore, Hermione checked out the wards before she began to teach Harry his first real magic.
They started out just as Hermione remembered doing before; it was not long before Harry was walking around the cellar with a rather large white feather floating along in front of him.
Hermione taught him about transfiguration and about how she made the magic work for her. It was not long before Harry was able to transfigure a chair into a table, or a vase into a glass of water, and Hermione wondered why he was such a quick learner this time.

Over the next few weeks and months as soon as they arrived home from school they went down to the cellar until Helen called them up for some food. They began to spend almost every Saturday down in the cellar as well, but Sunday they went to church and spent the rest of the day with Helen and Richard.

Both Helen and Richard were fascinated by the magic that the two children could do, and they also spent a lot of time down in the cellar.
During the second week of July as Helen called Hermione and Harry up from the cellar for dinner on the Wednesday evening, her waters broke and minutes later the family was in the car headed for the local hospital.

At four forty two on Thursday morning Hermione Jane Granger became the proud big sister of little Andrew Terence Granger.
Harry was as happy as he could have been if Andrew had been his own brother, especially when Helen introduced Andrew to them.

“Andrew Terence, meet your big sister and brother, Hermione and Harry,” Helen said rather tiredly. Having spent a few minutes each holding the new arrival Hermione told Richard that she would take Harry home and that they would see him in the morning, with that said Hermione hugged Harry and then with barely a sound they disappeared.

It was just a few days before Harry’s eleventh birthday that Hermione realised she could no longer remember anything about her previous life, the one thing she did remember however was her visit to heaven, and all that she had done and seen when she had been there. She had no intention of ever telling anyone about it though, not even Harry. They were her own special memories, memories to be cherished, and preserved, especially to memories of their children.

On the Saturday before Harry’s birthday Hermione convinced her dad to take her shopping to buy him a gift, and of course a card. She vividly remembered Christmas when he said he had never had a birthday card.
She recruited mum dad and Crookshanks in the plot to keep Harry from finding the gift she had bought for him, Crookshanks would go crazy running around Harry’s feet and then jumping up into Harry’s arms every time Harry tried to enter the laundry room, luckily together they all managed to keep the present a total secret.

There was a party organised for the week end, several of the Granger family and three friends from the houses opposite were invited. Hermione painted a huge banner wishing Harry a very happy birthday.
The party was in full swing when Hermione suggested it was time to give Harry his birthday presents.
The first thing she gave him was his letter from Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry was elated to find that he had been accepted there and that he would be with Hermione. The second gift she gave him was a kiss on each cheek, and whispering to him that he had to wait a while for his next present.

Helen and Richard gave Harry a small map of the house showing where he could find his presents off them and Hermione, with the instructions that he was not to start searching until there were no Muggles in the house.

As soon as the last guest had left the house Harry began the search for his presents, with the small clues on the map Helen had given him he soon found a broom and then a broom maintenance kit.
All he had left to find now was Hermione’s gift he followed the map into the cellar only to find it empty.

The cellar was one huge room with three pillars across the middle, at the left of the stairs was what they called the laundry room, it was the room where the washer and dryer were kept, and oddly enough it was the only room in the house he had never been in.
Opening the door slowly he stared into the darkness, then felt around for the light switch, finding the switch Harry quickly pressed it and as the light filled the room Harry saw a beautiful snowy owl sitting on top of a cage.